It’s Pixie Month: Ten Years of Pixie!

Pixie, the best X-Men character, was created ten years ago this month. Her first appearance was in New X-Men: Academy X #5 by Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir and Michael Ryan. She didn’t have a name at that point – leading people like Joss Whedon and Mike Carey to refer to her as ‘butterfly’ in their scripts subsequently.

She eventually got a name – Megan Gwynn, and a short biography. A welsh girl, she had fairy wings and the power to scatter hallucinatory dust over anybody who came after her. She was a member of the Paragons, a squad of X-Men students led by Rahne Sinclair – Wolfsbane. I can only imagine the sorts of conversations Claremont might’ve scripted for the pair in a fairer world.

Since then, Pixie’s gone on to break into the X-Men proper as a bright, bubbly and fun ‘intro girl’ for a new generation of readers. Following on from Kitty Pryde and Jubilee, she was used by Matt Fraction to bring new readers up to speed on the complicated universe the X-Men inhabit. She picked up a miniseries shortly afterwards, by Kathryn Immonen and Sara Pichelli, before jumping around as a main character in a series of X-Men runs: she was in X-Men Legacy under Si Spurrier’s pen, a prominent character in Age of X, a highlight of Brian Wood’s initial X-Men run, and so on.

She’s one of my favourites, and proof that new characters can thrive. She’s now ten years new, a character created after Chris Claremont left the X-Men, and she still appears regularly in titles like Amazing X-Men by Chris Yost/Craig Kyle. She’s got staying power, and is evidence that new characters can reach an audience, and can build a fanbase. So this month, to celebrate the character, every day there’ll be something on thi site celebrating her, or looking at the character. Stay tuned!